The Abyss of Paradise
by SnowShadowuser
Summary: Kagome had dreams, that is, until her nightmares began to consume her mind. A “bunny” comes to her aid. To regain her sanity she must salvage Wonderland from decay with a sexy but violent Halfling for a comrade. Lovely. American McGee’s Alice, IY style.
1. My Nightmare

**AN**: I said I'd write a new story before summer, didn't I? Yeah, I know I haven't finished…or updated…ANY story before summer (I'm not one to keep promises, unfortunately), but…the show must go on! And since summer vacation's just around the corner I'm hoping I'll get to update my stories in the near future.

_P.S. _Because I'll be asked sooner or later; I wrote this because I felt a tad **dark**. Also I'm going for that Gothic feel, something I haven't done since…well, ever. The closest I've ever come to a Gothic story is The Life of a Devil. And that was more Spy than Gothic.

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**Disclaimer**: Can't forget this. I do not own the characters of Inuyasha. I also do not own the plot of American McGee's Alice, which just happens to be the inspiration/bases of this little fic. NOT, I repeat, NOT plagiarizing.

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**Summary**: Kagome had happy dreams, until, that is, her nightmares began to consume her mind. A "bunny" comes to her aid. To regain her mind she must save the bloody Wonderland with a sexy-but-violent Halfling for a comrade. Lovely. American McGee's Alice, IY style.

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**The Abyss of Paradise**

Phase One: My Nightmare

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_To sleep was to die._

A single palm on the frosted window, a messy black head seemingly cemented to the cold windowsill. The aggravating sound of a consistent drip somewhere in the shadows of the room. This was all there was.

"Alice."

Two green, bulging eyes flickered to the voice, but only for a moment. Just as quickly the green eyes were glued back to the more interesting notepad.

"Alice, she's doing it again."

"Leave it be." Her voice, sharp and resonant, rang in the nearly empty hallway.

The uniformed guard frowned as he peeked through the square window, examining the still girl behind the steel door. If her hand hadn't twitched, he would've thought she was… "But she isn't in bed. That's against the codes."

Alice looked up and over the counter. She blew a lock of stay hair from her pale, bony face and smoothed her mahogany hair with one skinny hand. She sighed at the guard's ineptness. Breaking in the new nightshift guards was never her forte.

"It's against the codes," he repeated after her resigned sigh. "I was told—"

"Rubbish," Alice held her small hand up. "Nothing but rubbish. We don't run as smoothly as they tell you. If someone breaks a code, we ignore it."

"But—"

"If you want to report this and handle the paper works, I won't stop you," an almost cruel smile broke her stoic façade. "In fact, I'll applaud your diligence." Deciding that all was said and done, she effaced her smile and was engrossed in her notepad once again.

The guard's brow was wrinkled in a deep scowl, but he knew better than to speak against someone like Alice. With a curious glance at the nametag below the look-in glass of the door, he turned towards the end of the hall and continued on with his guard duty.

The name, however, stayed in his mind. The strange girl that feared sleep…as much as she feared death.

Higurashi, Kagome.

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_To sleep. To die._

Her eyes snapped open. But her body refused to move. As if waking up in the middle of a surgical operation, the anesthesia had failed. And she was feeling the pain.

Crazily, hungrily, her eyes swiveled like a trapped beast, searching for an escape. Even as her whole body tingled, even as sweat dripped from her bottom lip, she stayed still. She had a feeling she was being watched from the door, which she had her back turned to.

Her muscles tensed.

Were they still watching? Were they still there? Or is this…

She sat up abruptly. Her hair was so tangled for a moment she had to stop and pull apart the long bangs curtaining her face. She quickly snapped around, awkwardly twisting her waist in the process, and studied the door. No one was watching.

Kagome's eyes were wide and alert. She had woken up so suddenly she had yet to notice the drool running down her chin; much less remember she had fallen asleep.

"They're watching," she whispered. "I'm being watched." She licked her chapped lips, her expression that of a frightened child's.

A breeze ruffled her matted hair. A calming summer breeze that somehow managed to unnerve her more than the darkness itself. _Kagome…_ "Nothing here is real. Sanity borders on…" _Kagome…_ "…on the thin line of insanity. I have nothing to fear." _Kagome…_ "Because…because death is inevitable."

_Kagome…_

"SHUT UP!" she screeched. "SHUT UP! I GET IT! KILL ME! TORTURE ME! GET IT OVER WITH SO I CAN WAKE UP!"

The breeze stopped. As soon as she finished yelling she regretted it. Every word of it.

"Silence is my enemy," Kagome spoke, barely above a whisper, "and time is but a false concept. Get it over with. Get it over with."

_Kagome…_

Behind her there was a figure. She didn't know who it was, or what it was. But she knew **it **was there.

"I get it. Finish it. I die here. Get it over with."

A smile. A wide, stretched out smile, almost like a crescent shaped moon.

"Kill me already," Kagome continued. "Wake me up. Finish it!"

But it was never quick. No, it was never swift. Only painless. But the fear was real. Like watching the most horrifying movie imaginable, in an even more creepy movie theatre, and feeling that adrenalin rush as you watch the characters die one by one, victims to a sick gruesome game of an omniscient being who just happened to have a fetish for gore.

Every time she slept she would be one of those unfortunate characters. No matter what she did the predator always found her. Nothing would change—except for how she died. Nevertheless, by the time she woke up she was dead. And even when she did wake up the images never left. She'd endure the torture, the disgust, the nearly endless fear that coursed through her veins, and in the morning she'd have to unsuccessfully block out the flashes of her dreams, dreams that got bloodier the next night. Yet she'd wait for sleep. Sleep, at least, wasn't real.

At least it wasn't real.

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File: Start.

Kagome Higurashi.

Her first symptoms began on her 10th birthday, 5 years ago. It was described as a type of hallucination, mistaken for schizophrenia. That night she was given several sleeping pills in order to be subdued. She refused to sleep.

The news of her father's death the next day worsened her symptoms. She was driven catatonic. Her exact words were as follows: Don't let me sleep. Don't let me die. If I sleep I die. I'll die like dad, so don't let me sleep.

She was institutionalized in Killington Asylum on her 13th birthday.

File: End.

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Night again. A whole day after sleep. It was time to sleep again. Nothing was real. Nothing. Everything that had meaning was lost.

Kagome sat down on her chair, rested her palms on her knees, and looked straight at the door. It was a ritual, a promise to stay alive. But she wasn't enthusiastic about it. She had lost any will to fight. She used to fight it, fight sleep, that is, but she lost every time. Lost to sleep. To the nightmare. To death. This was meaningless.

She used to dream, yes. Dreams that were real. Dreams that didn't test her fear.

_Kagome…_

Kagome blinked. For the first time in a long time, she felt…shocked. Genuine, unprovoked surprise. She hadn't felt other emotions unrelated to fear in a long, long time… She had fallen asleep already? Had she finally given up?

_No…_

The shock had turned again to fear. Fear that was unfamiliar to her. A nervous, uneasy kind of fear—not sheer terror.

_My foreign voice frightens you? Amusing…_

"Kill me. Go on, kill me."

"You're so willing."

The unease had grown. The voice that usually stayed like an echo, a voice from an omniscient deity, had changed. Transformed into a child's. A child's, for crying out loud!

"You shouldn't give up so easily."

And **it** was there.

A child.

Kagome could not move. For once, her nightmare surprised her. She was supposed to be in the clutches of a sick maniac by now. And the smile… where was the crescent smile? Where was the ominous wind?

"Do you really want that?"

She tucked her unkempt hair behind her ears and looked down. An outline of a tiny form with two long, slender ears on its head with a black stripe at each end. Bunny ears? A blink. She made out its large green eyes with a pair of abnormally sharp pupils. But, for some reason, the figure was unnaturally shadowed.

"Don't you want to fight?"

"What?" was all Kagome could muster. She didn't dare lean forward. The less she moved the better.

"The world of logic has been disturbed. Why won't you fight it?"

"I'm…I don't understand," Kagome squinted. "Who are you?"

"Don't try. The shadows make up my cloak. No ordinary human can see through this camouflage."

Kagome did not try to absorb all this in. It didn't make sense. She didn't _expect_ it to make sense. After her nightmares began her curiosity had been pushed back, lest it die like her mind and will. She did, however, stand up when the door to her room slid open.

"Well?"

Kagome was frozen solid. Every joint in her body had locked in place, making any movement a difficult task.

"Do you not desire freedom?"

"This is… it is not real. The freedom you're offering isn't real," Kagome's voice wavered, a strange mix of desperation and anger. "You're giving me false hope."

"Tell me," the child said, ignoring her last statement. "What is it that lets you live? Hope? Goals? You have nothing, yet you still continue to live, not just to exist. How are you still able to live?"

This was easy. An easy question and an easy answer. Everyday she woke up sweaty and panic-stricken. Everyday she woke up to face the question: Why did she choose to live? Why did she _choose_ to go on feeling these emotions, even though she'd face the same thing over and over again? Even though she was trapped in this vicious cycle like a caged bird?

"Because I know I won't feel pain."

A chuckle. But this deep, malicious chuckle was not from the child. As the chuckle died the child said, "and I'm afraid this is where it all changes. The laws of nature will apply to you even in this forsaken land, now that you've chosen to fight."

Kagome's brows suddenly twitched. "Excuse me?"

"This realm may not be in your home world, but the rules will be set in motion. From now on your form here will bare the scars that will be reflected on your body. You die here, you die there."

"No, no, that can't happen," Kagome said matter-of-factly. "This is a dream. I never feel pain here. And I've died here plenty of times before but I always wake up in the end."

"Humans can't grasp the concept of true slumber. When humans sleep their soul is entering another realm in order to sustain their mind while the human body is inactive. Sleep is comparable to what you call Death. However, the process is like that of a submarine. Your soul may sink during sleep but it will rise back up at the appropriate time."

"When…you wake up."

"Yes," she distinctly noticed a change in the shadows. A smile? "But when you face death, the soul goes to a different realm. The Netherworld. This is a one-way trip, unlike the submarine. It's identical to what happened to…what was it? The ship, Titanic; the soul sinks and never rise back to the surface."

Kagome shook her head, weary and confused. "I just don't understand. I just don't see what you…"

"I'm revealing the secrets of this world and the next, something many of you humans have **_killed_** for, and all you can say is you're too inane to understand?"

The teen's eyes widened, stunned by his lack of self-restraint. "How can you expect ME to-to be interested in what you're saying? I'm trapped in this cage and you expect me to believe that what I do in this nightmare will have consequences?"

"All you need to do is stay alive…"

He was gone. She didn't see how it had happened. There was no smoke or anything of that nature. He had simply disappeared. No puff of pixie dust or magic. She hadn't even blinked. He had simply vanished in front of her wide eyes, like the darkness had gobbled him up. But what was even more alarming was the door.

It was still open.

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Heavy black smoke and crimson fire danced above the institution, twisting the grey sky in black and red. Tiny specs of black matter fell from the sky, light as feathers and small as snowflakes. Ashes, nothing but ashes, fell from the many chimney tops dotting the landscape. Every acre of this land had been overtaken by what looked to be industrial manufacturing companies. But despite the roars of the fire and the unending streams of smoke, the land was lifeless. Not a creature stirred, not even a fly.

Kagome, barefoot and still in her dreary hospital outfit, pitter-pattered across the tiled hallway, passing the open or cracked windows with great interest. This was the modern world, wasn't it? Built to produce by men to benefit mankind… yet at the same time it destroyed the natural beauty in life. How disgusting.

What she did not appreciate was the change inside the Asylum. The beige and red tiles had turned into a checkered, black and white pattern that stretched across the chilly hallway. The smokes and fires went unchanged outside, but the building itself had undergone an extraordinary transformation.

_All is not well._

There was a loud, ear-shattering clang. Kagome halted in her tracks.

_Do you wish to save it?_

Kagome, against her better judgment, peeked around the corner. Nothing was out of the ordinary. It was another long corridor, a never-ending hall of checkered tiles and closed steel doors. As she studied the surrounding she could not disregard the single splotch of red, an oddity in the white and black floor. It was a glowing kitchen knife, almost designed to be a machete, with dark bloodstains on the steel and handle.

_If you wish to go back to your wretched existence…_

The voice was a low rumble, not quite feminine but not at all masculine. Kagome thought she saw the two white, slender ears with the black stripes float across the ceiling, but the sudden urge to blink gave the two tail-like ears the chance to vanish yet again.

_I can send you back without any memory. Your dreams will go on, unaltered._

"What will I succeed in doing?" Kagome spoke, more to herself than the bodiless voice. "This is just a dream. Nothing I do here will matter in the real life."

A low rumble, like that of a lazy purr from a demon cat, was her response.

"Nothing here matters."

_Do you not wish peace? Do you not wish salvation?_

"Nothing here matters," Kagome repeated as she slowly stepped forward, fixated on the bloody weapon. "I will achieve nothing here."

_Do you not wish to save…your mind?_

Kagome did not speak. Her dry lips were firmly shut as she looked down at the red knife, glowing with the intensity of a white hot sun. There was something alluring about the knife, something sinful and forbidden. It was intoxicating. And it made the knife that much more desirable.

_Salvage this land… Salvage your mind…_

With a tender hand, trembling from the intense heat, she slowly reached for the knife. The floor had faded away. There was nothing there except for the knife.

"I want it." She wrapped her delicate fingers around the chestnut handle. Cold.

In the back of her mind, as the darkness slowly enveloped her sight, she imagined the Cheshire Cat grin.

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**AN: **YEEEEEEEEES! First chapter to a hopefully very twisted story! Oh, one question for you readers out there.

Do you want the inevitably-but-still-surprisingly-sexy Halfling to make an entrance in the next chapter? Or do you want the Gothic…ness…ess…to continue on to the next chapter? Tell me lest I forget about the inevitably-but-still-surprisingly-sexy Halfling!

Double S.


	2. Playing Card

**AN: **Updated. Because I've taken a sudden liking to this Gothic story… plus, for some reason, I'm happy to see that this story is receiving barely any recognition. It reminds me of my earlier days, when I wrote because I had nothing else better to do. Not that I'm saying I don't _want_ reviews. It just sort of takes me back… what? Oh, right. No time for reminiscing.

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**Disclaimer: **I don't _do_ repeats.

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**The Abyss of Paradise**

Phase Two: Playing Card

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Kagome opened her eyes. She was plummeting into another world. As horrifying as this felt, she couldn't help but enjoy this familiar sensation of falling to one's inevitable doom. It felt like death was finally welcoming her.

As she fell she passed a heavy stream of black smog traveling from a particularly high chimney top, a sore thumb among the clumps of short thick chimneys scattered around the desolate land. She clung to the cool chestnut handle of the blade as the air began to twist with the befouled setting. The fungal rot of the towering brick walls reminded her of withering mushrooms.

This world was festering to its core.

Impossibly, miraculously, her deadly descent slowed to an almost pathetic crawl, her body begging for the gravity to reclaim it back to the earth. She balanced her two feet downwards and held her head up high, feeling as if she was being manipulated by a sadistic puppeteer.

It was then she smelled the decaying odor of the diseased ambience. Such a disgusting condition this world was left in… what the _hell_ had happened?

Having regained control of her legs and back on the ground once again, she took the chance to examine the eerie estate. It was sad, really. This world was a ghost, a shadow of its former self.

"Slavery and happiness do not dwell in the same house."

Kagome turned to see a pitiful slave worker, obvious in his ragged clothing, standing awkwardly on a nearby platform. She was surprised to see that anyone, even a slave, would be here, talking no less. Just standing amidst the chaos of flames and ashes seeped the remaining strength from her legs, immobilizing her to the spot.

"A wind tunnel forms not by the man, but by the craft of the woman." This voice came from next to her, and it belonged to a bushy-haired child, half cloaked in the shadows that seemed to contort from the rough ground she stood on.

"You!" Kagome exclaimed when she recognized that this green-eyed child indeed had the same outline as the "bunny" from before. But he did not have bunny ears. In fact, he looked more like a fox when she saw the light woolly tail on his backside.

"Follow the rabbit and you will find the map."

As quickly as he appeared he vanished, taken back into the shadows that uncurled into a smooth surface on the ground. Kagome looked back up to the platform, but, instead, where the slave had been, there were two intertwined white ears with the black stripe at each end. It was the two rabbit ears that had appeared before she had taken the bloodstained blade. However, as the "ears" swayed to the side, she realized she had been wrong all along; the two _tails _revealed a tiny cat-like body behind the empennage, attached to an even smaller feline head. But had she not seen the two tails atop the fox boy during their first meeting?

Of course… the cat-thing had been sitting on top of the fox boy. That had given the illusion that the cat's tails had been the fox's ears.

Somewhere from afar, barely audible, she heard he child say, "Mortal danger surrounds her, yet she sets about undoing the chaos. Equipped with courage and a keen appetite for the bizarre, she clutches the Vorpal Blade in her hand."

"Vorpal Blade?" Kagome analyzed the sharp, rather long butcher knife. The bloodstain, if possible, had gotten even larger.

"A lethal array of transmogrified toys awaits her, ready to assist the liberation of this here Wonderland."

"Wait," Kagome spoke. "What do you mean liberation?"

"Depend on her strength of will. Fear not the depth but the action, leap into the wind…" As the voice trailed off Kagome instinctively stepped forward, following the echoes of the child's cryptic words. Were they clues?

"Wait!"

_Wind…_

"I don't understand!" She cried as she started running, not entirely sure of her actions but going with her intuition. She slowed to a halt as she came to the side of a chasm, a tad out of place in the industrialized region of this hellish land. The fox's last word still repeating in her mind, she instantly noticed the gust of wind blowing up from the chasm's center. She eyed the nearby ramp that seemed to have been positioned there for one purpose…

She gasped when she peaked over the edge of the chasm. It was pitch black nothingness, almost like a black hole in deep space. There was nothing there, not even a column to support the remaining ground from below. It was unreal. Too unreal. Yet Kagome could not ignore the possibility, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, that if she fell into this chasm, this void, she would not awake from her…increasingly realistic dream.

"…_leap into the wind…"_

But this was still just a dream.

Kagome held the Vorpal Blade tightly in a death grip. She slowly drifted to the ramp, feeling a strange emptiness. An emptiness that spared her from fear itself; it was apathy.

A meter away from the ramp she was overcome with impatience. With a sudden burst of speed she dashed onto the ramp and, incredibly, leapt off the safety of the incline.

Kagome felt her body nearly stop as it hit the gust of wind gushing out of the center of the chasm. She floated aimlessly over the dark void for a few seconds before she had the idea to lean forward. Her body, as she had anticipated, began to float forward. She continued to lean forward till she parted ways with the draft, at which point she was already smartly maneuvering her body to the other side of the chasm. Feeling the weight of the world lifted off her shoulders, she lightly stepped onto the convenient ramp placed on the other side of the chasm; she had just leaped over perhaps a good 20 feet—an implausible feat.

"It's horrid," a slave mumbled as Kagome turned to face him on the ramp. "The tyranny cannot end. It will continue to eat us away like cannibals."

"Who are you people?" Kagome said, seeing that she was not alone anymore. The ground on this side of the chasm was made of wooden floorboards, odd since she had just been standing on solid concrete on the other side.

"We are the slaves of this world, forced to tend to His Majesty's every whim, forced to tolerate the legions of armed guards. We have no rights, no properties, and no souls. We are no ordinary slaves. We are soulless puppets."

"Listen not to this corpse," It was the fox boy again, appearing out of the shadows like a ninja. "Every word they utter is guarded, meaningless. It is not news or useful information. They cannot think for themselves, lest they completely fade and become one with His Majesty."

From the corner of her eyes Kagome saw the tiny two-tailed cat dash past the slave, who looked like he had fallen asleep standing, and into a small doorway by the oak wall beside the chasm.

"To fit the entranceway, reduce her mass for a single day."

Again, as usual, the fox disappeared without a word of farewell.

"Reduce her mass," Kagome wondered as she uneasily walked past the unconscious slave. Did he mean she had to shrink herself in order to follow the cat? Kagome looked solemnly back to the tiny doorway as she walked away from the ramp. It was such a small door too.

…

"Are you the savior?" The slave's words were short and nearly incoherent, giving the impression that he had a speech impediment. Overwhelmed by fear, the slave trembled under the ungodly gaze.

The response was a quick and painful slap to the temple.

"You dare look me in the eyes like you're **_WORTH_** something?"

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

"Shut up!" Inuyasha growled, disgusted with this slave. No, he was disgusted with **what **the slave was. A human. A worthless, useless human being who couldn't even stand on his own two feet without depending on something for support. They were garbage. Even the term garbage seemed too good for these humans, humans so lowly insects ruled above their heads. His annoyance worsened as he stared at the cowering slave, still mumbling the same two words over and over again.

"I'm sorry…"

"Where is the Fortress of Doors?" Inuyasha cut in before completely losing his patience. "You've worked here all your life. You should know where the entrance is."

"I'm afraid that is forbidden knowledge," the weakling muttered, much to Inuyasha's aggravation. "If any outsider was to know, they would be immediately executed…"

Inuyasha, unbeknownst to the trembling slave, had raised his clawed hand, just about to show how _he_ felt about this 'rule', when…

"**_INTRUDER!"_**

"Damn it all!" Inuyasha cursed as he looked up to face a lone guard. It was a large hulking creature with bulging eyes and one oversized lance by his side. From the symbol on the guard's helmet Inuyasha recognized the guard in the black card rank. The slave, irrational due to panic, jumped to his feet and raced away from the guard.

It was against the rules to run away from a guard.

Inuyasha watched, rather amused as the guard ferociously threw his lance at the slave. Like a bullet through rubber the weapon pierced through the back of the retreating human, and his heart, killing him in an instant. The blood sprayed out in torrents.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Inuyasha took out what appeared to be a glowing deck of cards. Each card had an insignia of a black heart on the back, which glowed crimson when it came out of his red trench coat, knowing it had been summoned for another battle. The black card guard raced towards him, empty-handed or not, with a beastly howl.

Inuyasha calmly faced the guard and held the deck up, targeting the enemy. In his eyes blue rings appeared around the guard. Since birth he saw these blue rings whenever he was about to strike, rings that acted like his personal targeting points—a special trait that stabilized his aim, ultimately making him a better shooter. Once the blue rings were activated Inuyasha flicked his right index finger and, without a verbal command, launched the cards.

It was his primary attack: Single cards launched in a rapid fire-fashion. His cards were no ordinary papers; it was sophisticated magic, a trick that transformed each card into metal-like stilettos that shot out of his hands like lighting.

However, there was one downfall to this technique.

The black card guard swiftly hid behind a metal pillar and watched as the cards passed by, striking crates and the wooden floor as the guard pompously prepared his own assault.

Inuyasha growled. If the enemy moves behind an obstacle or dodges quickly, the cards could either strike another object or miss entirely. And, as the cards had obviously failed to do they're job, that's what precisely happened. The boy snapped his fingers, calling for his cards to return to his deck… but that was a second too long.

The black card guard darted from behind the pillar and produced six lancets out of his sleeves. With two decisive swings the six double-edged blades were flying at the silver haired teen. Inuyasha dodged the first four without much effort, but the fifth lancet nicked his wrist and the sixth managed to perforate his shoulder and lodge itself between the humeral head and the socket; meaning if he had been capable of dislocating his shoulder and popping it back in before the fight, he wouldn't be able to do it now.

In fact, his left arm was now inoperative.

As Inuyasha was left to suffer on his knees, the guard ran for the lance still lodged in the slave's corpse. Neither of them expected to see a large bloodstained butcher knife streak into the guard's shin.

Kagome, wide-eyed and white, stared as she rose from the position of a pitcher that had just thrown a fastball. She had unwittingly activated her Vorpal Blade's secondary attack, which was a rough ranged assault. In her eyes she had seen a distinct red dot on the guard's leg, like a sniper's target, which turned out to be a rather painful pressure point that effectively neutralized his lower body movement. However, she was now figuring out what her attack's disadvantages were.

By the time the blade was back in her hand, the guard had pulled the lance out of the corpse and had thrown it across the space separating her from the two men.

Kagome doesn't need to run over to pick up the blade after throwing it—the Vorpal Blade eventually reappears in her hand, but it takes several seconds to do so. This puts her at an adverse circumstance if she was leaning on the blade as her main form of attack; which, at the moment, she was.

If Inuyasha had not been there, she would've ended up like the luckless slave.

"Little minx." Inuyasha sneered and launched his secondary attack, having reorganized his deck while the guard had been concentrating on Kagome. The deck of cards' secondary mode was a "burst attack" of cards; Inuyasha tosses a handful of cards into the air, which in turn track the enemy like individual missile launchers. Though not all will likely strike the target, the chances of a single hit was ten out of ten.

The lance was the first target. Kagome, like a doe caught in a headlight, froze when she saw the lance. She stayed still until she saw around four cards hit the sharp metal head of the weapon, nudging the airborne lance slightly to the right. Kagome took the chance to fall to her left, barely missing the long wooden shaft as it missed and hit the column behind her, making a loud ring like an arrow that had hit the bull's eye.

The second target was the guard. Two separate sets of five cards mercilessly slugged the guard's head, as it was designed to do. The last two cards were Aces. The real killers. Like switchblades they turned into sharp knives and sliced through the guard's eyes and head, successfully killing him. The body melodramatically slumped to its knees and then tipped to the side, finally ending the fight.

Kagome held the Vorpal Blade between her two shaking hands, her mind completely blank. That thing was finally dead. She had helped a man murder another man… She took two slow breaths and then got on her two cramped legs, almost in a mechanical fashion. Inuyasha watched, interested. The pain in his shoulder was forgotten; actually, he had already taken out the lancet.

He watched the girl scrutinize her outfit. It seemed like even she was shocked to find herself in such an ensemble. What had first caught his eyes was the black and red bodice that tightly clung to the girl's body. It was a strange choice of clothing, mainly because humans had no choice in clothing. They were all meant to be slaves, and that meant they were all meant to wear slave clothing. This was by far the oddest thing he had ever seen: A meek little girl, a sex considered weak in humans, wearing a unique garb wielding a bloodstained butcher knife.

If he was anyone else, he might've felt threatened.

"You!" Inuyasha bluntly yelled, startling the girl. "Where'd you get the Vorpal Blade?"

To his surprise, the strange, mysterious, and somewhat alluring girl looked him directly in the eyes. And to his even bigger surprise, instead of answering, she promptly turned around and sprinted away.

"Hey!" Feeling he had the strength to, Inuyasha got up and dusted himself off. He took a step in the girl's direction only to pause. There was a sudden shift in the air. Not quite the feel of danger, but still very unsettling.

Thinking nothing of it, he sprung into the air with much calmness as if he was taking a stroll.

The Vorpal Blade was the first of an assortment of toys, otherwise known as weapons in this world. Most of the toys possess primary and secondary attack functions. It was said that there was only nine left after the purge, sincerely by His Majesty. The nine toys, if used altogether, were said to be the best combination of weapons to use against the royal forces, if implemented correctly. Inuyasha looked down at the deck in his hand. His Cards were the second of the nine toys.

Following the trail of the girl's standout fragrance, he leapt onto a pile of used wooden boards and careened his head back. Closing his eyes he carefully sniffed the air. The blood soaked blade was near.

Somehow he had also ended up in the Buzzed Saw Mill area.

Inuyasha jumped up to the ledge on the left and grabbed the steel railings. As he did this he spotted another slave standing a few feet away from the ledge, looking a little dazed and slightly out of it. Beside the slave's left foot was a small pipsqueak, the lower part of his torso coiled into the shadows.

"She makes her way into the mines, only to learn of the Fortress of Doors."

"The Fortress of Doors, huh?" Inuyasha smirked. "How convenient."

"If the second wishes to follow—"

"I'm not following anyone," he cut in. "I don't know who you are or **what** you are. And I frankly don't give a crap. I'm going to do this for my own selfish reasons." It was strange, talking to a child—THING—that was half sinking in the shadows of the floor. Not that this place wasn't freakish enough. He was used to the occasional surprises this rotting world still held. It was a morbid life, living in a dying world that couldn't even support its own natural resources.

Imagination, dreams; such things simply did not exist in this doomed land.

Inuyasha walked away from the weird boy and continued on until he noticed the sign marked "Yur Mine". An interesting name for a mine. Inuyasha nevertheless leapt to its higher ledge, not being one to hesitate. As he entered the passage his nose suddenly tingled with the familiar fragrance.

"HUAH!"

Kagome rose out of the shadowed walls and assaulted Inuyasha with a vicious slash. Inuyasha, having had that one second gap to recognize the faint scent, threw his head back. He watched, incredulously as Kagome regained her balance and struck a fighter's pose, pointing the tip of the sharp blade at his neck. She, of all things, had the nerve to jump him?

"HEY!" Inuyasha cried as his wounded shoulder collided with the dirt wall. He hardly winced. "Crazy wench! I'm not after you!"

Even before he finished speaking the Vorpal Blade was already in its primary mode; she had activated the melee attack, deliberate or not. Inuyasha dodged as many swipes and slashes as possible, but the blade was like the claws of a hellcat released from its cage. One, two, three, he dodged, then another melee, one, two, and three. Cut, dodge, and repeat.

Giving up on dodging, Inuyasha threw himself onto the girl. His sudden move gave Kagome the chance to inflict a deep cut down his forearm; this also gave her the chance to appreciate how much the melee attack required a quick footwork to be effective. If she couldn't employ the hit-and-run tactics to avoid the enemy's backlash she was at the risk of close combat. Something that was definitely not her forte.

Inuyasha grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her like a bad child. "You insane Amazon! What's WRONG with you?" In the back of his mind, somewhere in the recesses of where his dreams and imaginations once resided in, something clicked. For some odd, disturbing…for some unfathomable, ridiculous reason… the way her cleavage teasingly peeked over the tight garment… even though he completely and wholeheartedly believed in the lowly rankings the humans DESERVED to be in…

This wretched girl was turning him on.

When he realized what that meant, when he understood his innermost thoughts, he immediately loosened his grip. Kagome stumbled back and watched the silver-haired stranger cautiously step away, almost like he was backing away from the bubonic plague. He wore a dark red trench coat that hid most of his body. His sharp, unearthly eyes were almost like a pair of eagle eyes. And on his head, this time she was sure, were real animalistic ears.

Dog ears?

"Dementia."

Inuyasha turned to the childish voice from behind the opposing girl's legs. That weird boy from before.

"She and he will now face Pandemonium."

The shadows seemed to converge around them, the fox boy in the center. Darkness surrounded Inuyasha.

…

…

…

**AN: **If you know anyone interested in tense (NOT _intense_—it's **TENSE**) Inuyasha/Kagome romance, bizarre horror stories, or loves American McGee's Alice, then go and recommend this story right away! Mainly because I need more opinions. Tell me what you think about this story and I'll update faster! (Which ultimately sounds like a bribe/threat, but eh…why not?) I _crave _opinions!


	3. Undeclared Truce

**The Abyss of Paradise**

Phase Three: Undeclared Truce

…

…

…

Inuyasha woke up with a start, awoken by the sharp pain in the back of his neck.

Years of fighting taught Inuyasha one important rule: waking from an unguarded sleep was one of the most foolish things to do. You mind as well jump off a cliff if you didn't know where you were, simply because, in this day and age, sleep was deadly, if not suicidal.

"Dangling without life, swing left and right to travel onward."

Emitting a furious roar from deep within his chest, Inuyasha jumped to his numbed legs and pointed his claws in the direction of the voice. His demonic eyes swiveled every which way in the darkness, hungrily searching for the one responsible for his hostility.

"He's already gone."

Inuyasha whirled around, coming fact-to-face with the same strange human girl from before. He, on impulse, grabbed her neck in one rough hold and placed his other hand next to her head, one clawed index finger on her soft temple.

Ba-dump.

He grinned smugly, her heartbeat betraying her fear. Her face, what had at first confused him, was the perfect mask.

"It doesn't matter," the girl hissed, painfully so, as he tightened his grip. "Nothing matters."

"Who the hell are you?" Inuyasha demanded, pushing her to the wall. "Where'd you get those clothes?"

"I'm as good as dead."

Her words bemused him. To hear such calm, decisive words out of a weak human girl, so fragilely made, was nothing but a contradiction in itself. Her mouth said one thing while her heart said another. Inuyasha blinked. It was the same foreign, dangerous feeling again; this disturbingly tangible heat that coursed through his veins, boiling his blood.

Inuyasha immediately released her, much like before, and cautiously stepped back. "Who are you?"

The girl didn't respond, not at first. She rubbed her eyes and leaned back against the wall before saying, "My name is Kagome and, if I'm right, this isn't my world."

Inuyasha dropped his claws, though he stayed in his fighting stance. This was one of those rare moments in life that made living tolerable; when this dying little, apocalyptic world managed to surprise him with a completely random gift of entertainment. In this case, it was a neurotic human girl. "Alright, Ka-go-me. Let's say I believe you. Where are you from, exactly?"

"Another land entirely. Not this world, that much I'm sure," Kagome closed her watery eyes, tired. "This is a dream to me. I'm here only because I'm asleep."

"Wake up," Inuyasha grabbed a lock of her hair and harshly pulled her head up. "I'm still talking to you."

Kagome suddenly pulled her hands from behind her back, conjuring a familiar weapon that was now pointed at his face. He smirked.

She was a feisty one.

"Don't touch me," she said, though she was beginning to lose her balance. "Don't forget I saved your life."

"No you didn't." Inuyasha still yielded and dropped his hand, letting go of her hair. The moment he freed her Kagome slumped her shoulders, completely giving up on standing. She fell forward and onto Inuyasha, grasping a handful of his unkempt hair as her head rested on his chest. Inuyasha, in question, made no move to catch her. Letting her rest on his chest was good enough, at least in his mind.

"I told you who I was," Kagome coughed, finding comfort in his warm clothing. "So who are you?"

"It's Inuyasha. The forbidden vagabond."

"Forbidden. Why?" She was beginning to lose consciousness.

"I'm half and half."

"Half…human? And half…"

"Demon." A third voice answered.

Inuyasha turned to his right, though he had to awkwardly grab Kagome's wrist to stop her from sliding down onto the ground. "You!"

It was the fox boy, this time completely free of the shadows. His lower body, now uncovered, consisted of two canine legs and a bushy hay-like tail. The fox boy smiled, though his face was a little pale.

"Call me Shippou."

Inuyasha would've struck the boy down the moment he saw him, but Kagome had suddenly began exerting all her weight into his chest, forcing him to instead step back.

"Don't hurt him," she said, barely above a whisper. "He's our guide."

"Guide?" Inuyasha retorted. "I never agreed to this!"

"You agreed the moment you accepted the Cards," Shippou said.

"They were an heirloom!" he growled. "Besides, I work alone."

"Where will you go? By killing a guard you've condemned yourself to the top of the most wanted list. You are no longer a vagabond, but a wanted man," Shippou smiled humorlessly. "Your only hope now is to join us, unless you want to challenge His Majesty alone."

Inuyasha squinted. Then his face turned into that of a horror-stricken child's, as if suddenly hit by an overwhelming epiphany. "Wait…you're a—"

"Your guide. Nothing more, nothing less."

Kagome tipped her head back, a sick sensation traveling up her throat. "Footsteps."

Shippou and Inuyasha turned to the entrance of the dark mines. Shippou sighed, saying, "They have already found us. I suggest you listen to the girl, Inuyasha, and follow the path she chooses."

Inuyasha watched as the boy step back and seemingly disappear through the wall, leaving a slow but steady ripple in the shadows.

"To the right," Kagome interrupted. "My blade."

Inuyasha turned to see that Kagome was already heading towards the other end of the mines, pointing her glowing blade as she limped forward. "Hey!" he yelled as he caught up. "What are you doing?"

"We have to get away from the guards. They'll kill us. Kill you on sight, but with me, I don't know what they'll do…"

With a grunt he cut her off and examined her Vorpal Blade. It was glowing brilliantly blue, radiating visible waves of powerful heat.

"Hurry. We have to go…"

Inuyasha turned around and grabbed her outstretched hand, pulling her closer. "Get on. You're too slow." He leaned down and yanked her nearly lifeless body onto his back. Kagome's said limp body sagged on his back as he adjusted her weight and found a suitable position. He seized her thighs and stood up. "Hold my shoulders, you moron."

Hesitantly, Kagome snaked her arms around his neck and rested her elbows on each of his shoulders. Her blade still in one hand, she pointed the weapon forward. "They're near."

Inuyasha got on one knee and, without another thought, jumped. His head brushed the cold ceiling, but that did not slow his pace; nothing slowed him, not even Kagome's weak groan.

"Just because you're tired doesn't mean I'll slow down!" he yelled mockingly, going so far as to squeeze her thighs just to spite her.

Kagome was in no mood. "No… it's the blade."

Inuyasha frowned before he suddenly screeched to a halt, passing an opening and stopping on a wooden landing. Of course!

"Give me that!" Inuyasha snatched the hot blade out her hand and held it tightly in his own, even as the handle seared his palm. "Idiot! This blade requires strength of pure **Will**! If you hold onto it without any you'll only kill yourself!" Even before he finished his lecture he saw some color return to the girl's face. Somewhat glad, Inuyasha strapped the blade onto his coat, making sure it was secured before lowering Kagome to her now able feet.

"Right," Kagome blinked, regaining her composure. "Yeah, I feel a lot better now."

"Don't touch any weapon until you're physically and mentally rested," Inuyasha growled. "Now get on my shoulders."

"Excuse me?" She looked at him, incredulously so.

"Look," he said, pointing ahead. "We'll have to cross by jumping on the hanging ropes, and I'll have better balance if you're on my shoulders and not on my back." Kagome saw that he was, in fact, telling the truth. There was a gap between the landing they stood on and the landing on the other side of the broad ravine. Fifty feet below the ravine, oddly enough, were tiny clumps of quaint little shacks nestled alongside several waterwheels. There was no way to jump across it like the last chasm.

"Alright." Kagome said as Inuyasha leaned down, yet again. She had a strange feeling he was actually enjoying this… but ignoring that, she sat on the nape of his neck and straddled her legs around his head. She grabbed his hair as he straightened up, nearly falling off.

"You better not use my ears as reigns."

Kagome lifted her hands and realized she had been squishing his dog ears. They were such velvety ears.

She gasped when the dog-eared one promptly jumped off the wooden platform without another warning. He caught the first rope with ease and swung back and forth. Feeling sick, Kagome hunched down and screwed her eyes shut, gently clutching the dog-ears and wrapping her legs around Inuyasha's whole head.

"As much as I'm enjoying this," Inuyasha said, "I need to breathe."

Before he finished, though, Kagome shouted, "GUARDS!"

Inuyasha cursed and twisted his body to the left just as a spear shot past them. Having gathered enough momentum Inuyasha leapt to the next rope. Another spear flew by, just nicking Kagome's kneecap. Inuyasha leaned forward and caught the next rope with one hand. Before the guards threw another spear he swung back and, with a mighty lunge, shot off and landed on the opposite landing.

There was no time to waste.

"Stay on!" Inuyasha yelled just as Kagome got ready to jump off his shoulders. "There's no time to change position!"

Kagome bent her head down to avoid the rocks as Inuyasha hopped onto a nearby catwalk. He continued running until the ropes were out of sight.

"Good," he smirked. "Guess they didn't make it past the ravine."

"So," Kagome paused. "Can I get off your shoulders?"

"Why not? I like this position. Aren't you comfortable?"

"No."

It was while toiling in the earth did the slave bother looking up. Imagine the slave's shock when he saw two people, a human girl on the shoulders of a silver-haired dog man, approach him. Imagine his greater shock when the girl, without a moment to lose, abruptly asked, "How do you become small for a day?" Even the dog man seemed shocked by her rather odd question.

So, it was lucky for Kagome that this slave was willing to help.

"I can offer you some assistance," he started, "_if_ you retrieve something for me first."

…

…

…

_To the right, right, right._

Bounding across the creaky floorboards, the tiny creature caught a faint yet familiar scent.

_To the left, left, left._

The creamy white Kirara halted when a closed door came up. Kirara stared, as if confused to be in front of the door that was, in fact, the entranceway. Kirara turned around and examined the room. Everything was familiar. Yet it should be unfamiliar. Strange. Very strange.

Perhaps, maybe… the two-tailed feline was lost?

Two tails twirled and curled before the feline, unexpectedly, stood up, forepaws swinging wildly, gestures similar to that of a symphony conductor. Something changed as Kirara's gestures became more elaborate and crazed. The door before the cat shifted and grew two sizes in width. Kirara stopped, and then climactically fell forward, landing on two rigid forepaws.

And as if nothing had happened, Kirara turned around and began dashing to the opposite end of the room.

_I'm late, late, late._

…

…

…

"There's the "Danger" sign," Inuyasha turned to Kagome. "Ladies first."

Kagome, having finally regained some strength, rolled her eyes before stepping into the mine cart and sitting down. Inuyasha soon followed, though not before pushing the cart down the steep, descending slope. At first, it was a smooth ride through a cool, breezy tunnel. It soon, however, became slow and arduous and increasingly annoying, what with the constant clicks of the rickety wheels.

"You know," Kagome began, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "I think I'm ready to hold the Vorpal Blade now."

Inuyasha faced her with one brow up. "Oh? Are you now?" he pulled out the blade from his trench coat and dangled it in front of his face. "Not before you tell me why."

"Why what?"

"Why you're doing this. Why you're following that fox's orders."

"Fox?"

"The boy. Your guide."

Kagome sighed. "He never game me orders. I just chose to do this because…it's better than waking up and dealing with my real life."

"Your real life." Inuyasha, though he would never admit it, was interested.

"The constant fear, the constant anxiety, and people who just look at me like a hopeless freak… Yes, it's much better here. I have a purpose to accomplish in this decaying world. And if I end up dying here, at least I'll die doing something. That's why I don't mind doing something as pointless as what we're doing right now. It makes no difference to me."

Inuyasha smirked and handed the blade over, though he refused to leg it go when Kagome tried to tug it out of his hand. "How very noble of you."

"What about you?" Kagome asked, all the while fighting for her blade in their small tug-of-war. "Why did you agree?"

"It just so happens," he let go of the blade, letting her win, "that I was looking for the Fortress of Doors. Since that slave promised to direct you to the Fortress if you retrieved his whatever, I'll be dogging along for a while."

"Why were you looking for the Fortress?"

"I heard it was a place of answers. And, in this world, a place like that is more valuable than, say, a goldmine."

Kagome sat back down on the other side of the cart, trying to find a comfortable position. "So, how does being a half demon work? Is this world controlled by demons, or…"

"Good question," he said, leaning back on the cart. "Demons actually died out years ago, though a few managed to survive the purge. The guards are the ones who run this world—and they're nothing but defiled humans who lost their humanity eons ago. Humans with souls are automatically slaves, minus the snitches and the bribers; _they_ have some authority and power here."

"So, the boy, our guide, I mean…"

"Is a pure-blooded fox demon."

Which explained why Inuyasha had been so shocked when he got a good look of their guide, Shippou. Kagome contemplated her Vorpal Blade, rubbing the cool handle with her tender fingers. "What about His Majesty? Is he a human?"

There was a long pregnant pause before Inuyasha, looking the other way, replied, saying, "A forbidden—half man, half demon. Like me."

Strange. Very strange. Kagome had the feeling that he was omitting a lot of details. It was as if he was feeding her snippets of alarming truths to avoid answering the bigger questions. For example; why was Inuyasha following her if he knew the slave had knowledge of the whereabouts of this so-called Fortress? Wouldn't he be more inclined to beat the location out of the slave? And if Inuyasha was a vagabond, and a forbidden at that, why did he need rescuing from that one particular guard? If he truly was a wanderer he must've crossed paths with many other guards during his travels.

Nothing was adding up here.

"Anything the matter?"

Kagome looked away, naturally embarrassed to have been caught staring. "No. Nothing."

As Inuyasha smiled, charmingly in his own, beastly way, Kagome could not help but notice the deceptive glint in his eyes. Something about him was…off.

Had she, in a weird, alarming way, not felt safe resting on his warm chest? Had she not felt comfortable sitting on his sturdy shoulders? What had come over her to admit in her mind that she, miraculously, felt **good** when she was near a deceptive man like _him_? He was not her savior. He was not at all truthful. Although admittedly attractive. But nevertheless…

Kagome watched him through her bangs, the half demon in question passing the time by shuffling the Cards he had pulled out of his red trench coat.

She could not help but feel that…she should be wary of him and not guards. That he wasn't the type to trust when you went to sleep…

…

…

…

**End of Phase Three: Undeclared Truce**

* * *

**AN**: Oooooooooooooh. Didn't I promise Inu/Kag tension? Yes, Inu's a sneaky fellow. Anyhow, Shippou's finally pulled himself out of the shadows and Kirara's… acting like a typical nekomata. If you don't know what a nekomata is go to Wikipedia (google that) and type in Nekomata. You'll understand what Kirara was doing once you go to the link. I'll give you a hint, just to save time: Japanese mythological creature. 

Now…REVIEW for MORE, MORE, MORE Inu/Kag…ness…essity!


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